Voltaire - The Sarcastic Thinker of the Enlightenment - The Great Thinkers
Voltaire, pseudonym of François-Marie Arouet, was an 18th-century French Enlightenment philosopher, renowned for his wit and criticism of religious fanaticism and intolerance. His thinking was marked by skepticism, humanism, and support for freedom of expression and the separation of Church and State. Author of various works, including the famous "Candide", Voltaire profoundly influenced Western thought, advocating for justice, civil liberty, and societal reform.
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He wrote, "If you can make people believe absurdities, you can make them commit atrocities." How relevant today.
@frankburklin1116
21 күн бұрын
Prescient. But human nature never really changes , regardless of the times. Rinse and repeat.
@masonvegas4336
16 күн бұрын
Thx
@peaceleader7315
13 күн бұрын
They will.. but slowly. @@frankburklin1116
@Thrankson
13 күн бұрын
Perhaps there is no such thing as “human nature”. Maybe we just make it up as we go🤷♂️
@peaceleader7315
13 күн бұрын
@Thrankson every human being is spongbob square pant .. we absorb things we don't have, nature or instinct.. I guess it was just the surrounding environment as finally decision and conclusion.
"God is a comedian playing for an audience too afraid to laugh".- Voltaire
@mikebarnes5528
22 күн бұрын
In his last years he turned back to God & “adored him”. God has forgiven him for such statements like you quote. Don’t waste your time to bitterness & hate.
@ibeetellingya5683
12 күн бұрын
Great statement, but I can't find where Voltaire wrote that. Where is it from?
@hewitc
10 күн бұрын
Religion sells false hope to frightened people. It's is an extremely lucrative business.
@gamkal7231
23 сағат бұрын
@@mikebarnes5528 Where do you see bitterness and hate in this? By the way, Voltaire was a Deist all his life, which meant in the 18C that he believed in a "higher power' but not in any religion, which after decades of study into history and religions, he considered all man-made (and very abusive). So there was "no turning back to God". He never left his won concept of 'God' expressed in a poem in his 20s, Epitre à Uranie or Le Pour et le Contre ("For and Against"). He just deepened it, really.
Many are destined to reason wrongly; others, not to reason at all; and others, to persecute those who do reason. Voltaire
Every history video feels like a window into the past, bringing ancient tales to life.
Excellent piece of biography of French philosopher, Voltaire. I loved it. I thank the narrator for his beautiful presentation. ❤🎉😂
Driver of the French revolution, with writings like "Candide!" Which expressed that "Good people doing nothing, are nothing!"
I've often thought of frank zappa as the voltaire of 20th century music. Ridiculing authority usually gets you some well deserved air play eventually.
@stefanschleps8758
7 күн бұрын
Spot on.😊 Great minds think alike.
@CanadianMemorials
4 күн бұрын
I inherited 14 albums..... seems like an accurate depiction.
A feerless man that liberated so many for centuries to come. Many kids still read Candide in school. Viva Voltaire!
@moussesucree
Ай бұрын
Vive*
@ivanbarbosa81
8 күн бұрын
He should come back now that intolerance is rising
Well done. Thank you. ---- If I were to time travel, I would choose the time of Voltaire. And beg to be his valet. To be near historic genius.
In typical French fashion, Voltaire was very expert at enjoying his senses and devoted an inordinate amount of his thinking to it.
He really was a exceptional person that gave a lot to the world
A very influential person in Europe and the Western world
@ivanbarbosa81
8 күн бұрын
The father of the french revolution
Incredible writer, I agree with alot of his philosophy
'Judge a man not by the answers he gives, but by the questions he asks' has to be my favourite quote of his. But I have a very hard time reconciling with the fact that preached liberty and social reform, yet he was so fond of the Ottoman empire - an exceptionally backward and cruel one, not mention it enslaved my nation and destroyed so much cultural heritage. But we all have flaws ...
@chrisgavin2794
19 күн бұрын
What about the Ottoman Empire did he admire?
@johnnwako2488
10 күн бұрын
Which one is "my nation"?
Seek the unknown,question everything.
One of my favorites....
Voltaire is my spirit animal
I love them already. Nonsense and Latin and then all the other things freedom. It's a beautiful thing
The tale of Micro Mega, by Voltaire comes to mind...thanks for post...A libertine❤
Voltaire, is one of my heroes. 😶
I liked Voltaire work about god so much. Really interesting work!
Read candide i'm just falling in love with it
I agree with his epitaph, he sounds enlightened. I gotta read Candide, and Voltaire philosophy. He's a Soul Man!!!
@gamkal7231
23 сағат бұрын
@stephen5865 Zadig is even better, imo. But don't miss esp his Treatise on Tolerance and his Philosophical Dictionary (which is on religion, not philosophy). Those are among the ones that shook everybody's boats!
When I first read Candide in college, I thought it should've been made into a Monty Python film.
So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men. Voltaire
Make a video on Swami Vivekananda and his social philosophy
Very interesting, I always heared of this man but now I will for sure look for more info on him.
Much appreciated 👌🏼
If there’s life on other planets, then the earth is the Universe’s insane asylum. Voltaire
Could we maybe get a video about Zadig?
Great informative and thought provoking video!
Hey! Can you make a series on Indo-europian legends and myths
That 'biblical solution to toenail fungus' ad in the middle of a Voltaire video is the sort of thing that Voltaire made fun of.
@christopherhamilton3621
Ай бұрын
That tells us more about what ads you get than it has to do with the video, but interesting nonetheless…😂
@andrewheaney6858
18 күн бұрын
@@christopherhamilton3621 For being the type of person that watches a Voltaire ?
The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity. Voltaire
Very English humour, brilliant man😊
Nothing changes. Everything is the same.
@hewitc
10 күн бұрын
"Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good!"
If you're interested, the short Voltaire story Micro Megas is on Doc Sloan's Science Fiction Station channel. Doc himself reads it. There's two versions so click on the longer of the two as the shorter is work/kid safe and is not the complete story.
I may start considering him an eighteenth century Hunter S Thompson
Please do a Robert Heinline video
❤🤍💙 all your videos mate👍
!Viva Voltaire!
That was really good❤❤ thank you
Cool you added scholars episodes to your channel, Do Ibn Rushd please
He was one of the contributors to the French constitution.
Hume, Smith, Black all Scottish from the enlightenment ❤
And don’t forget to tend your garden.
Maybe the beginning of existentialism as we know it.
A genius
That was a very French name
Ty
I've never had a hero.... this guy is the closest I've ever come....
@gandalfstormcrow8439
29 күн бұрын
Jesus Christ died for you.
@jonhappleseed8144
28 күн бұрын
@@gandalfstormcrow8439Jesus was in his 30s with no girlfriend and hung out with a bunch of guys. He also identified openly with at least three identities: the father, the son, and the holy 💩. In private, whatever he identified with can be several of what’s constitutes the LGBTQ 🏳️🌈 IA.
@dustinmiller2775
26 күн бұрын
@@jonhappleseed8144Voltaire said that Christianity would be a forgotten, relic 100 years after his death. Ironically, the French Christian Society set up their headquarters in Voltaire's house, a hundred years after his death.
Isn't he the one who said "I drink (coffee) therefore I am"?
And he was a southpaw. GO LEFTYS!! YOU RULE!!
How to make animated videos like you ?
@SeeUinHistory
Ай бұрын
We have a professional animation editor on our team 👍
🌟🏆🎊🎉🎉🏅
Volt here
MUST HAVE BEEN RICH, SITTING AROUD ALL DAY THINKING.
The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor. Voltaire
Spongebob Squarepants 😂I like it 👍
Next I see Vlad the Impaler ❤❤❤
@leondobre7498
Ай бұрын
I am relative of Vlad,I got a house 60 miles west of his mountain castle 😮😮
"I die, loving my God … and detesting superstition." How's that for a blatent contradiction?
@rabokarabekian409
20 күн бұрын
Voltaire was a deist. Not contradictory at all, but certainly provisional.
Ponder existence more deeply.
Humm
Nobody's perfect. Bed side conversion
He was also a freemason
@gamkal7231
23 сағат бұрын
Not really. Ben Franklin was, and insisted on making Voltaire an honorary member in a Freemason temple in Paris while Franklin was there, shortly before Voltaire died. But Voltaire accepted reluctantly, out of of respect for Franklin, because he thought secret societies were silly. He felt strongly about sharing his views very publicly! (Luckily for us!)
He said all he learned at Jesuit school was some Latin and a few other things. That was the sarcasm for which he was known, undoubtedly. I didn't learn anything at all from the Jesuit order. They don't like me.😢 I care a lot, too.
@gamkal7231
23 сағат бұрын
It was a quip. But the Jesuits were definitely teaching superstitions!
marquis's? Marquis'.
@gamkal7231
23 сағат бұрын
See my correction above!
A hospital nurse gave him one day to live? Women didn't give birth in hospitals in the 18th century (nor in 1694). You mean the midwife. Among lots of other minor errors. (For ex, Voltaire made 3 visits to Frederic the Great before Emilie du Châtelet died and he finally moved there for 3 years. Candide, Micromégas and Zadig were considered very minor works at the time. He didn't even publish Zadig. Some friends did. The Philosophical Dictionary (which is almost entirely on religion, not philosophy), his book on Newton and his Letters On England are the only real major works you mention - among the 200 volumes Oxford just finished printing. Contemporaries considered his history books as pretty major, esp his Age of Louis XIV and his world history. And then esp his "Treatise on Tolerance" and his écrasez l'infame pamphlet war on imposed religion the last decades of his life. Those works are what changed the laws not long after he died. (Also, please pronounce the S at the end of MarquiSE. A Marquis, written without the E and pronounced without the S, is a man. Just trying to help!)
Ah, my kind of rebel ...the kind will act the part of anarchist and do right by God, the lottery, etc.
The hog?
Almost every French name in this video is mispronounced. Marquis sounds like markee. Marquise sounds like markeez. Rousseau is ru-so, not ro-so.
@libertycowboy2495
27 күн бұрын
The narrator is speaking English so don't see the issue. He at least says French words with a French accent 😂
@andrewheaney6858
18 күн бұрын
Is this what you got from this video, what a bizarre take away?
@gamkal7231
23 сағат бұрын
@@libertycowboy2495 But mispronounces the words a lot!
Voltaire was a deist.
Is this an AI narrator? Why did he try a French accent at the beginning when he can't manage "Francois Marie Arouet"? Can't pronounce "nom de plume" properly and sounds like he's saying "Using the azaleas" instead of "using this alias." I guess "this" was too difficult for him. If this is a person, why do people try to pronounce names in foreign languages? It always sounds lame. I don't know any country besides the US where this attempt is made. You never heard French announcers striving for an authentic American or British pronunciation for English words.
@SeeUinHistory
12 күн бұрын
It's not AI, our videos are narrated by real people. And this is such a great comment to read because most of the comments on our videos complain that the narrator didn't correctly pronounce the name or the word in the original language - be it French, or Latin, or Greek, or Japanese - as if the narrator always was required to know the pronunciation in all the languages. And you're right, that's just happens in english. Anyway, thanks for commenting and I'll try to work on better narration for future videos - although we'll never please everyone
@gamkal7231
23 сағат бұрын
@@SeeUinHistory Calling Emilie du Châtelet a "marquis" (which is a man) instead of a "marquise" was probably the most shocking. And I don't see why it's more difficult to pronouce. But yes, there were plenty of other weird pronunciations. Maybe you can find a true bilingual next time.
Not a nice guy. Actually in the more scientific books it was his ( for a while) metresse Émilie du Châtelet that stood for the math and physics and never got acknowledged.
@gamkal7231
23 сағат бұрын
She was highly acknowledged in her own day. The Germans listed her among the top ten scientists of the age, and Italy unanimously elected her to their Academy of Science in Bologna. It was 19C and early 20th century writers that reduced her to "Voltaire's mistress". But she's a big comeback since. And Voltaire always called her a genius.
AI
Can't pronounce "Rousseau" either... or "Bourgeois" or The Hague (which he pronounces The Hog). 2:09: Here's an idiotic statement in this video: "His defiance stemmed from his outspoken criticisms of the government." Whaaa? His defiance is the SAME thing as his criticisms. His defiance didn't come FROM his criticism. Who writes this drivel? Lemme guess: AI?
Louis XIV died in 1715, not 1717!
So much hatred of fellow humas over religion. No one can even prove that God exist. God exist, only to those who are chosen to know. Matthew 11:27 All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.
I wonder why he hated superstition but loved god? It doesn't make any sense...
@gamkal7231
23 сағат бұрын
It does, if you understand 18th century deism. Find his Philosophical Dictionary and read the article "Theist" or Deist - depending on the translation used. It's great text.
@MegaDonzee
22 сағат бұрын
@@gamkal7231 Yes, 18th century thoughts.
Voltaire is nothing compared to these artists paintings
cunning little brain regular Voltaire., thinks hes quite a lover but theres not much there .
i studied zadig in french the guy could destroy you with two words a badass